


Habitual

by dreamsofolicity



Series: prompts from tumblr [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, F/M, Felicity meets the Vigilante, season one AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2018-12-06 01:32:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11590248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamsofolicity/pseuds/dreamsofolicity
Summary: Habitual • adjective • regularly or repeatedly doing or practicing something or acting in some manner: having the nature of a habitorFelicity meets Oliver as the vigilante first when she gets mugged.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a prompt on tumblr.
> 
> You are welcome to send me prompts on tumblr yourself. [Just go here!](https://dreamsofolicity.tumblr.com/ask)
> 
>  
> 
> [Felicity's Outfit](https://urstyle.com/styles/1862274)

Felicity absolutely refused to cry. Even though her attacker was long gone, she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. It was hard to convince herself of that, especially when her foot gave a particularly nasty throb and humiliation caused her cheeks to burn furiously. When a traitorous tear slid down her cheek, she lifted her hand to wipe away with a huff. That was when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. The still alert part of her wondered if the mugger had come back to hurt her even more. Or maybe someone else had stumbled on her pathetic form and decided to see if she had something worth taking. Either way, she didn’t even look up.

“I don’t have anything else for you to take,” Felicity said, sounding more weary than anything.

A long stretch of silence answered her. Dropping her hand on the concrete beneath her with an audible smack, she lifted her head to give whoever this was a piece of her mind. Apparently her survival instinct decided to stop working. Luckily her mouth snapped closed when she saw the figure standing about four feet away, perfectly still and very green.

The vigilante.

Felicity raked her eyes over him, taking in every detail of what he wore and the bow that he held in his hand. It wasn’t aimed her way, which she considered a good sign. The leather fit his body perfectly, molding to him and making him look just as intimidating as Felicity expected. She didn’t expect to feel a surge of appreciation, especially when she saw the hint of scruff covering part of his jaw that wasn’t covered by the hood that shadowed his face.

“Are you okay?”

His technologically altered voice pulled her out of her scrutiny and Felicity blinked several times before realizing what he’d asked her. Raising her eyebrows, she stared up at him.

“Yeah I’m great,” she said, gesturing around her. “I love sitting on random sidewalks in the middle of the night. It’s actually a hobby of mine.”

Perhaps using sarcasm on Starling City’s resident vigilante wasn’t the best idea. But since Felicity’s fight or flight response had abandoned her, apparently sass was the third best option for her. When he tilted his head to the side slightly, she wondered if that was an almost smile that ghosted over his lips. Then he was lowering himself to a crouch, still keeping a fair distance from her.

“What happened?”

Felicity tugged on the end of her ponytail, looking away from him. She definitely couldn’t bear to watch him as she relayed the embarrassing story to this particular man.

“Mugger,” she said, staring out at the empty street. “I tried to get away but my heel caught in a grate and I felt something pop when I fell. Then he hit me in the face a few times for trying to run.”

She waved her hand down at her throbbing foot, calling attention to the swollen and bruised appendage before gesturing to what was going to surely be a black eye and the small cut on her forehead.

“The mugger got away with my purse, which included my cell phone. I tried to get up to find a pay phone but I can’t walk. So I’ve been sitting here for the past ten minutes stewing in my own misery. This is what I get for working late,” Felicity said, her eyes stinging as she tried to distract herself with the anger still brewing in her chest. “That asshole is lucky that I wasn’t carrying my tablet or I’d hunt him down, broken foot or not. Okay maybe I’m overstating things. Vigilantism is your thing. Not that you’d go after someone for stealing a tablet or a purse. Your targets are usually higher up on the food chain.”

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to stop before any words flew from her mouth.

“Did you see which way he went?”

Felicity’s head snapped back towards him and she looked at him with surprise.

“You’re seriously going to go after him for stealing my purse?” she asked with wide eyes.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not going to leave you here.”

That shouldn’t have been as comforting as it was. But a large part of Felicity was just glad that she wasn’t alone, and that the person who found her wasn’t trying to kidnap or kill her. When he straightened up and stepped closer to her, she tilted her head all the way back to look up at him. Then he was bending over and his arms were sliding under her very carefully.

Felicity let out a shriek of surprise as he lifted her up as if she weighed barely anything. Her hand flew up to grip his shoulder as he readjusted his grip carefully. Felicity hoped that he couldn’t see the flush on her cheeks because his gloved hand was definitely cradling her thigh beneath her dress. Even without the skin-on-skin contact, it made her feel just a little bit warmer.

“That way,” she said, pointing with her free hand before he could move. “He ran off that way.”

With a nod, he turned to walk in the exact opposite direction. Felicity didn’t really know what to make of this situation. She risked a glance at his face but all she could see was the same strong jawline covered with scruff and the slope of his nose. His eyes were hidden by the shadows. His hands were fairly busy holding her up. It would be easy to pull his hood back and find out the identity of the man beneath the hood. But that wouldn’t be right.

So she focused on something else instead. His bow was slung over his back. He didn’t react when she lifted her hand, continuing on steadily as she touched one end of the weapon. Then her fingers found the fletchings on his green arrows. Felicity briefly wondered if anyone else had touched his weapon like this, or been this close to the vigilante at all. She had a feeling about the answer.

“Where are you taking me?” Felicity asked.

“The hospital.”

Starling City General wasn’t a long hike but it was several blocks away. She briefly wondered if he really wanted to carry her the whole way. But he showed no signs of stopping or fatigue. Felicity couldn’t deny the raw strength the could feel in the hard muscles cradling her to him. Still, she slid her arms around his neck and held some of her weight up herself, careful not to tug the hood down.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you,” she said.

That same almost smile tugged at his lips.

“It was a stupid question,” he said, sounding silly with that voice modulator still on.

Felicity turned her head, keeping her eyes on the path in front of them. He was taking back roads, not that she blamed him. Starling City was very quiet in the late night hours but she doubted that he wanted even the rare night owl to spot the Hood carrying a bespectacled blonde down the street. The headlines would certainly be amusing.

“I didn’t know you made a habit of saving injured women from dirty sidewalks,” Felicity said, feeling slightly jittery.

He didn’t answer for several moments.

“I don’t.”

She smiled slightly, tilting her head back towards him.

“Careful, Mr. Vigilante,” Felicity warned, feeling slightly tired now that her adrenaline was fading. “I might just start thinking I’m special and then you’ll be in big trouble.”

He tightened the hand on her waist lightly, almost teasingly. It made her smile grow.

“The Hood is a ridiculous name, you know,” Felicity said, the words falling from her mouth before she could call them back. “Not that you’re ridiculous. I just mean… the media isn’t exactly imaginative. I’m surprised they didn’t straight up call you Robin Hood. There are a bunch of better names. Like the Archer or the Arrow or…”

“Mr. Vigilante?” he said, repeating her address of him.

Felicity paused, wondering if he was actually amused by her babbling.

“Even that’s better than the Hood,” she informed him.

“Unfortunately they didn’t ask for my endorsement,” he said, turning onto the street that led up to the hospital.

“What a shame,” Felicity said, blinking slowly.

Brighter light flooded her vision as he walked straight through the automatic doors into the emergency room. There was the slightest bit of activity due to a reception desk and three patients in the waiting room. Every single person gaped at the hooded vigilante with an injured blonde in his arms. Then there was a flurry of movement and the doors were opening. He didn’t bother to put her down, walking straight through them to the gurney that they were rolling her way. Felicity’s cheeks were pink again, she was sure. Everyone around her was staring at the green archer with awe but she felt the loss of his touch when he laid her down on the gurney as gently as he could before stepping away. Tears stung at her eyes as she realized that she was about to be alone again, even though she was in the hospital. Then his gloved hand found her bare knee and squeezed lightly. Felicity looked up at him, not bothering to wipe away the errant tear this time.

“It’ll be okay.”

She believed him for some reason. With a nod, she lifted her hand to cover his.

“Thank you,” Felicity said quietly.

He stilled slightly, clearly surprised at her response. Then he was stepping back and her hand fell away from his. The doctor and nurses finally started moving, asking her questions about what happened as they pushed her further into the hospital. When Felicity glanced back over her shoulder, the vigilante was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity meets the vigilante again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my entry for the Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon prompt: Impaired Judgment.
> 
> Thank you for the amazing response to the first chapter! I hope that you like the second one just as much.
> 
> It's going to be a while before Felicity even meets Oliver Queen, much less before she finds out that he's actually the Vigilante. I just wanted to warn you because I'm not moving particularly fast with this. That doesn't mean there's not going to be some romantic stuff before she meets Oliver Queen though. I'm not quite that patient. Plus I love the idea of Felicity kissing the Hood.
> 
> [Felicity's Outfit](https://urstyle.com/styles/1862284)

Felicity rarely participated in solo pity parties. Usually when she wanted to feel sorry for herself, she did it with a bottle of wine and a few of her closest friends. But since she was on pain medication, the bottle of wine wasn’t going to happen. And she didn’t really want to explain the bruises on her face and her sprained ankle to any of her friends. So here she was, sitting on her couch on a Saturday night with her foot propped up on a pillow and a half eaten bag of cinnamon toast crunch in her lap while an episode of Psych played out on her television.

She was somewhat spaced out so she didn’t notice anything strange happening until her eyes caught on movement outside of her sliding balcony door. Her scream caught in her throat as she watched a large dark shape unfurl in mute horror. Then she saw the curve of a bow and the slightest hint of green. The tension slowly ebbed from her muscles as she sat up, dropping her feet to the floor carefully. She had crutches on the other side of the couch but Felicity left them behind, limping her way to slide her door open.

“Are you real?” she asked.

His huff of laughter sounded strange with the voice modulator before he answered.

“Are you supposed to be on your feet?” he asked.

Maybe it was the medicine that made her feel petulant, or maybe it was her natural state and she just didn’t realize it before, but Felicity let her lower lip push out in a slight pout.

“I asked you first,” she said.

He didn’t answer for a moment before shaking his head.

“I’m real.”

“I’ve been icing and elevating this thing for the past three days straight,” Felicity said, holding her ACE-wrapped ankle out for him to see. “I think I can stand to… stand.”

She bit her lip to keep from giggling.

“You shouldn’t strain yourself,” he said.

Felicity leaned her head against the doorway, staring out at him as he remained shadowed on the other side of her balcony.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

He didn’t answer, tilting his head towards the chair on her balcony. Felicity’s eyes widened when she caught sight of her work bag.

“You got it back,” she gasped, reaching out towards it.

But she stopped herself, looking up at him warily.

“What, uh… what happened to the guy who took it?” Felicity asked nervously.

“He’s sitting in a cell at SCPD,” he said before reaching out to lift it himself, handing it over to her.

She took it with a sigh of relief. It was pretty common knowledge that he killed people. Felicity wasn’t about to lecture him for it. She wasn’t an expert on the situations he’d been in. But she wouldn’t hesitate to take him to task if he decided to kill her mugger. Felicity didn’t want that on her conscience even if he was an asshole. Taking the bag from him, she set it in the apartment behind her before looking at him again.

“Thank you,” Felicity said.

“I wouldn’t advertise that you have that,” he advised her, still keeping his distance. “They’ll start asking questions if they learn I brought it to you.”

She nodded solemnly, letting her eyes drift over him. The glow from her apartment was enough for her to see some of the details on his clothing that she’d missed before. The scruff on his jaw captured her attention as well, just like it had last time. When she let her eyes linger on his buff arms, Felicity couldn’t help but flush when she remembered how warm and solid he was when he held her, carrying her through the streets to the hospital. Then she recalled how he reassured her that she would be okay with his gloved hand on her knee. It comforted her far more than he knew.

“You didn’t kill that man, did you?” she blurted before she could help herself.

He stared at her, clearly confused.

“James… Holder,” Felicity said, pushing through the haze in her mind to remember the name she’d heard on the news that morning. “He was shot. You didn’t do it.”

“How do you know I haven’t expanded my methods?” he asked.

“Call it intuition,” Felicity said, shifting slightly without putting weight on her sprained ankle. “And I may have hacked the SCPD’s system.”

She couldn’t see his eyes but she could tell that he was shocked by her admission.

“You shouldn’t do that, Felicity,” he said.

She blinked at him with surprise, trying very hard not to admit to herself how really freaking good her name sounded even in his modulated voice. She'd never loved her name but right now, she definitely wouldn't mind hearing him say it again. But there were more important things to discuss, like how he knew it in the first place.

“How do you know my name?” Felicity asked, feeling less creeped out than she probably should have. “And since we’re on the subject, how do you know where I live?”

“I have my ways,” he said.

“So do I.”

He sighed once, looking away from her.

“I didn’t do it.”

“I knew it,” she said with a smile.

Felicity had a damn good intuition, even when she was slightly high on pain medication. He looked back at her, staring for several long moments before holding up something else in his hands.

“I didn’t just come to bring your bag,” he said.

She glanced down at what it was, frowning when she saw a laptop there.

“You need tech help?” Felicity said with disbelief.

“Is there anyone better?”

She shook her head without a second thought but she didn’t reach out to take the laptop.

“Does this have something to do with who really killed James Holder?” Felicity asked.

He nodded once in response, waiting patiently for her to make up her mind. She reached out very slowly to take it before turning around, limping her way back into her apartment. Felicity left her door open, sitting down at her desk before taking a look at the laptop.

“What did you do?” she demanded, turning it over to look at the complete damage that what had to be bullets had done.

“Spilled a latte on it,” he said dryly.

Her head snapped up and she saw him hovering in her balcony doorway now. It was easier to see the green color of his suit and the definition of his muscles beneath all the lever. Felicity tried very hard not to stare appreciatively.

“What did he do?” Felicity asked, her mind moving from one thought to another very quickly.

He tilted his head to the side questioningly.

“James Holder. Why did you go after him?”

There was no real reason for him to answer. But she had a tenuous hold on her verbal filter when she wasn’t taking medicine. There was really no hope of shutting her up at the moment.

“He put defective smoke detectors in low income housing,” the vigilante answered her without hesitating much at all. “People died.”

Felicity nodded before glancing down at the computer in her lap.

“Will you help me?”

She took a deep breath, weighing her options for just a moment. Just having him in her apartment felt somewhat like harboring a fugitive. But clearly James Holder’s killer wasn’t done, or the vigilante wouldn’t be seeking out her help. What if the killer hit someone innocent next time?

“This may be the pain meds talking because they are definitely impairing my judgment,” Felicity said quietly, tracing her trembling fingers around one of the bullet holes. “But yes, I will help you.”

She couldn’t see his face but Felicity had the feeling that he was relieved. Reaching out to open her own laptop, she shifted on her desk chair and took a deep breath.

“Better make yourself comfortable, Mr. Vigilante,” Felicity advised, flashing him a smile. “It’s going to be a long night.”

With that, she flexed her fingers, inhaled and exhaled slowly, and nodded once at herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him hesitate before moving, sliding her door shut behind him. Then he was taking a seat on her couch and Felicity couldn’t help but glance over at him, unable to keep from smiling at the sight of him sitting in her armchair and watching Psych. He looked completely out of place but, for some reason that Felicity couldn’t quite describe, it felt right for him to be there. Then she turned her attention back on the computers in front of her, putting her game face on before getting to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love to hear what you think!
> 
> Feel free to send me prompts if you like. Either put them in the comments here or go to my tumblr page.
> 
> tumblr - [dreamsofolicity](https://dreamsofolicity.tumblr.com/)  
> twitter - [ogteamarrow](https://twitter.com/ogteamarrow)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity can't sleep and decides to take a late night trip to the drugstore. A surprise pops up along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This doubles as a third chapter for this fic and my entry for this week's Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon prompt: Sleepless.
> 
> I am so glad that everyone likes this fic. I love writing it. Thank you for the amazing response. <3
> 
> [Felicity's Outfit](https://urstyle.com/styles/1862312)

Felicity couldn’t sleep. On the one hand, she was off of her pain medication and, other than the the occasional twinge, her ankle was mostly healed. On the other hand, she couldn’t quite decide whether helping a criminal vigilante hack into a bullet-laden computer was a hallucination or not. So she couldn’t sleep as her mind tried to sort it all out. She was stuck on her couch staring at her balcony where he’d materialized in her possible delirium, chewing on her nail as her mind spun with the uncertainty. In her exhausted state, the idea of putting out a wanted ad made a laugh rise to her lips.

_ Blonde IT girl seeking hooded vigilante   
Unmasked men need not reply _

She needed a break. Hysteria was taking over. Rising from her couch, Felicity slipped on her nearby flats, pulled a sweater on, and grabbed her keys, phone, and wallet. Part of her was just happy that walking out of her apartment and down the street was remarkably easy without crutches. The other part simply needed a change of scenery before she drove herself crazy. So she took her elevator down to the ground floor, made the short trek across her lobby, and stepped out into the night, taking a deep breath of fresh air before turning to walk towards the closest drugstore. 

Felicity barely made it half a block before a surprisingly gentle hand closed around her arm and tugged her into an alley. Her panicked shriek was cut off when that same hand covered her mouth, pulling her back against a hard chest. She started to struggle her way out of his arms when he finally spoke, his lips close to her ear and his modulated voice quieter than usual.

“Felicity.”

That was all that it took. She immediately stilled and his hands fell away. Turning around with a quickly beating heart, Felicity lifted her hand and smacked his leather clad arm, briefly feeling hard muscle beneath her palm.

“What the hell was that?” Felicity hissed, stepping away from him. “Are you trying to kill me?”

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” he fired back.

She crossed her arms over her chest, glowering up at him.

“I’m just walking to the store,” Felicity said defensively. “It must be a slow night on the vigilante front if you’re lurking in dark alleys waiting to accost unsuspecting women who only want to get a pint of ice cream.”

She couldn’t see most of his face, especially since he stood in the shadows, but she could see the tension in his jaw and she could definitely sense the annoyance rolling off him in waves.

“Do I need to remind you how we met?”

Felicity narrowed her eyes at him.

“Would you please? I think I may have forgotten,” she said sarcastically.

She saw his hand tighten on his bow but he didn’t say anything.

“I live in Orchid Bay,” Felicity said with a scoff.

“And you were mugged around the corner from your workplace,” he said.

“It’s really creepy that you know all of this about me and I know nothing about you.”

That made him go quiet again and Felicity felt a surge of frustration before realization hit her.

“I wasn’t experiencing a medicine induced hallucination, was I?” she asked.

He simply tilted his head to the side.

“You came to my apartment. I helped you,” Felicity continued.

He nodded slowly. The nonverbal communication was starting to grate on her nerves.

“Did you get him? The guy with the laptop?”

“His name was Floyd Lawton,” he said.

“I remember,” Felicity said, squinting her eyes as she recalled the fuzzy night. “But the laptop belonged to Warren Patel.”

“Mr. Patel was trying to eliminate the competition so that he could purchase Unidac Industries.”

That made sense and she recalled seeing an article about it the day after the auction. Warren Patel had been arrested and Felicity’s own boss, Walter Steele, had been able to swoop in and buy Unidac. It was widely considered a good move on Queen Consolidated’s part and it paid off in the value of their stock.

“So Floyd Lawton was essentially a gun for hire,” Felicity said.

“He operated under the codename Deadshot,” the vigilante told her, his voice remaining quiet. “He’s been a hired assassin for years.”

“You stopped him?”

He nodded yet again. Felicity couldn’t help but wonder why he was willingly telling her all of this. Shouldn’t he be concerned about the possibility that she was recording all of this to take it to the SCPD or something? Not that she was. And they probably already knew that the Hood was involved in it. So getting that confession on tape wouldn’t mean much unless she could give them the name of the man beneath the hood. Felicity would have to get him out of all that leather first, a thought that almost immediately brought a heated flush to her cheeks. She sincerely hoped that the shadows of the alleyway were doing her a favor so that he couldn’t see her blushing.

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Felicity asked, trying her best to keep her voice level despite her traitorous mind imagining how it might feel to peel all of that leather off and unwrap him like a present.

“You helped me catch him,” he answered, the annoyance nearly gone from his modulated voice. “You deserve to know what happened.”

Felicity pressed her lips together, wrapping her arms around her middle.

“So we’re even now?” she asked, turning her face away from him. “You carried me to a hospital and got my purse back. I helped you catch a bad guy in return.”

What she couldn’t figure out was why he was there now. Why did he care if she made a late night run to the store? Her answer came when he took a step forward and lifted her chin towards him with that same gentle touch.

“I didn’t come to you to cash in on a favor, Felicity.”

“Then why?”

He didn’t answer for a few moments.

“When I was carrying you to the hospital, you could have pulled my hood down.”

Felicity inhaled at the reminder of how close he held her, and how easy it would have been to reveal his face to her eyes. She didn’t realize that, while she was thinking about it, he might have been doing the same.

“I was tempted,” she admitted.

“Most people would have done it.”

It hit her how much trust he’d shown her in that moment, putting his true identity entirely at her mercy. An intrusive thought caused her to briefly wonder what he would have done if she did pull his hood down. But she rationalized quickly based off of the interactions she’d had with him so far. He wouldn’t have hurt her, even if she did give in. Stepping closer, Felicity reached up slowly and pressed her palm to the same spot she’d smacked him before. Even through the leather, she could feel his muscles twitch in response. She had the feeling that he wasn’t used to someone touching him without violent intent. It made her heart ache for this man that she barely knew.

“You trust me,” she said.

It wasn’t a question, but he nodded anyway.

“You don’t trust a lot of people.”

This time he shook his head. She let out a long, heavy sigh.

“That makes it really hard to be mad at you,” Felicity admitted, squeezing his arm lightly. “But no more pulling me into alleys without at least a little warning, okay? My heart can’t take it.”

“I won’t do it again,” he said solemnly.

She nodded, feeling slightly intimidated by the trust this man felt around her. But it felt good too. Maybe that was the kind of adrenaline seeking, danger addicted part of her that caused her to become Ghost Fox Goddess what felt like a lifetime ago. Without looking beneath his hood, Felicity focused on his strong jawline and nicely shaped lips. It was the only part of his face that he was showing, so absolutely no one could blame her for looking.

“I’m around,” Felicity said, still holding onto his arm. “If you need help again.”

He didn’t say anything for a long few moments.

“Why?” he asked.

Felicity hesitated before answering, unable to quite believe that what she was about to say was true.

“I trust you too,” she said.

Clearly that was the last thing that he expected to hear. Felicity thought he might have taken a step back out of surprise if only she wasn’t still holding him. When his hand lifted, she watched as it closed around her wrist gently and pulled her hand away from his.

“Go get your ice cream,” he said quietly, taking that step back.

She nodded, hoping that she hadn’t made him feel uncomfortable.

“And you?” Felicity asked.

He was almost fully in the shadows again but she thought that there might have been a slight smile on his lips.

“I’ll watch out for you.”

Felicity’s heart leapt in her chest and she couldn’t control her responding grin. Turning away, she felt his eyes on her as she went.

“Thank you, Mr. Vigilante,” she said softly, knowing that he would hear her.

The snick of an arrow was the only response she got and when she peeked over her shoulder, he was gone from the alley. But she knew he was still there somewhere. As she continued on towards the drugstore, Felicity found that she didn’t quite mind her sleeplessness anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love to hear what you think!
> 
> tumblr - [dreamsofolicity](https://dreamsofolicity.tumblr.com/)  
> twitter - [ogteamarrow](https://twitter.com/ogteamarrow)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that it has been absolutely forever since I updated this story and I'm so sorry. I'm going to try to get back to regularly updating all of my fics but my writer's block has been terrible so it may be hard at first. Just please be patient with me.
> 
> This takes place right after Oliver saves Laurel and Peter Declan in the prison. There will be no Laurel/Oliver in this fic so you don't even have to worry about a possible love triangle or whatever. It's purely Olicity.
> 
> [Felicity's Outfit](https://urstyle.com/styles/1869522)

As Felicity stepped through the door of her apartment, she knew that all she really wanted was a long hot bath and a good sized glass of wine now that she was off the pain medication. The weighty burden of what Walter Steele had asked her to look into was hard to scrub from her mind even though she’d given him the information he wanted. Felicity wanted to know more than anything what was in the warehouse she’d discovered when she looked into Tempest but knew that the likelihood of actually finding out was very low. Walter may have trusted her but not quite that much. She could have looked into it on her own but that ran the risk of being discovered and possible fired for overstepping.

So if all that she could do right now was run herself a hot bath and pour herself a glass of wine, that was exactly what she would do.

Except that when she closed the door and reached out to flick on the light of her entryway, nothing happened. Felicity switched it off and on a few times before letting out a groan. She definitely didn’t have it in her to change a light bulb so she simply moved onto the kitchen, dropping her purse as she went. Only the light in there didn’t work either. She remembered seeing lights on in other units as she drove up to her building so it wasn’t a blackout. The same thing happened when she tried to work the light in her living room. Not even her end table lamp was working.

“Great,” she said, throwing her hands up in the air. “This is just perfect.”

“Felicity.”

Her answering scream echoed through the apartment that wasn’t as empty as it should have been. The only thing that kept her from bolting for the door was the fact that she recognized the altered voice that spoke her name.

“What the hell?” Felicity demanded, peering into the corner of the living room where her unannounced visitor was hovering in the shadows. “Did you break into my apartment?”

“Your balcony door isn’t secure,” the vigilante said, remaining eerily still.

“Clearly not,” she said, pressing a hand over her racing heart.

Then she glanced around as a realization dawned on her.

“Did you do this?” Felicity asked, pointing at the nonfunctioning light above them.

His answering silence was all that she needed for confirmation.

“Give me my electricity back,” she demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

“It will come back as soon as I leave,” he said.

Felicity huffed, shaking her head at him. It was tempting to ask why he was being so damn obnoxious right now but she stamped down that urge and turned away from him, kicking off her shoes by the couch before carefully walking into her kitchen. It may have been dark in her kitchen with nothing but light from the street lamps coming through her window but Felicity knew her way to her wine stash and corkscrew just fine.

“I heard about what you did on the radio,” she said, remembering the breaking story that came on just as she left work. “Not too bad for a day’s work.”

“Jason Brodeur was always going to be a target of mine. Saving Peter Declan was just an added benefit,” he said dismissively and she could almost hear the slightest discomfort beneath his altered tone.

“Still, you saved an innocent man from being executed. That’s gotta count for something even if it wasn’t your intention.”

Somehow his lack of response made her feel like there was something else going on and Felicity paused in pouring out her wine, setting the bottle down to make her way back into the living room.

“What is it?” she asked, tracing her eyes over his shadowed form.

He didn’t answer for a long few moments and Felicity wondered if he heard her. She opened her mouth, ready to ask why he even came, but then he finally spoke.

“I started this to save the city,” he said, sounding more troubled than she’d ever heard him. “It didn’t occur to me until now that I may lose people along the way because of my decision to do this.”

Felicity let his words sink in for a moment before stepping closer to him.

“That’s why you wear the hood, isn’t it? So that doesn’t happen?”

“I wear it to keep the people that I care about safe,” he said quickly.

“Yeah but it has to be a little easier to face those people if they don’t know what you do at night,” Felicity said.

His lack of response didn’t come as a surprise to her this time.

“Does anyone know who you are?” she asked, tilting her head to the side curiously. “Beneath all the green?”

“One person,” he said, his words sounding even more burdened than before, if possible. “They didn’t take it well.”

Felicity felt deeply for him in that moment, realizing just how lonely it must have been. Taking that into account, it was really not all that surprising that he kept seeking her out. Somewhat selfishly, she didn’t really want that to end. A part of her that she didn’t even know existed felt alive when he was around, like a piece that fit perfectly in the larger puzzle that was Felicity Megan Smoak. It was definitely that part of her that drove her to say what she did next.

“Well you still have me,” she said, her cheeks flooding with color even as she spoke. “Not that you _have_ me. That is not at all what I'm trying to say. I mean you do have me but not in a weird or creepy way. I’m just around and not really going anywhere even if you did knock out my electricity. I meant what I said before. I trust you and I’m always willing to help you.”

“Why?” he asked, his disbelief coming across quite clearly.

Felicity thought about it for a moment before shrugging once.

“Because it feels right.”

A moment passed before he finally stepped away from the corner. Because of the darkness of her apartment, he was still quite shadowed but it was the principle of the gesture that counted.

“You don’t want to know who I really am?” he asked.

“Part of me says yes because I hate mysteries but part of me says no too. I think that whatever we’ve got going here will work a lot better if you’re Mr. Vigilante and I’m just Felicity. It feels like things will be less messy that way. Plus plausible deniability and all that.”

She didn’t really know where any of that came from because the part of her that was dying to know his real identity was screaming at the logical side of her that somehow knew it was a bad idea.

“You’re not _just_ anything,” he said quietly, pulling her from her torn thoughts.

Her face grew even hotter at his words and Felicity couldn’t quite stop the small smile from forming on her face.

“Careful,” she said warningly, crossing her arms over her chest as she thought back to the night that they met. “I might just start thinking I’m special and then you’ll be in big trouble.”

He let out a soft noise that was nearly a laugh and her smile grew.

“Thank you, Felicity,” he said.

“Anytime,” she told him, watching as he turned towards her balcony door. “Just… leave my electricity alone next time please. I like my lights working.”

He didn’t say anything but she thought she saw him nod just before he headed out the door. Less than a minute later, her lights flickered on as she stood there still staring at the balcony door. Shaking her head, Felicity turned around and headed back into the kitchen to grab her glass of wine. She felt less exhausted than before and wondered how that brief conversation managed to rejuvenate her so easily. There was just something about her vigilante that made her feel lighter, making her do a happy little hop as she made her way down the hallway to where her bath awaited her.

* * *

The next morning as she sat on her couch flipping through channels and sipping at her first coffee of the day, Felicity came across Starling City’s number one news station and lingered there when she saw the breaking news symbol on the bottom of the screen.

“Oliver Queen has been arrested,” the anchor opened, staring seriously into the camera. “The SCPD is charging him with multiple counts, including obstruction of justice, kidnapping, and murder. Could the recently returned billionaire really be the vigilante prowling the streets of Starling City? More on this story after this.”

As it turned out, hot coffee felt a lot better when it wasn’t coming out of her nose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I would love to hear what you think!
> 
> tumblr - [dreamsofolicity](https://dreamsofolicity.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that it has just been so incredibly long since I updated this and I am so sorry. I’m especially sorry that it’s hapoening at 4am where I am but I was too impatient to wait. Here’s hoping that people actually read and comment.
> 
> Thank you for putting up with me! <3
> 
> Felicity's Outfits: [At the Courthouse](https://urstyle.com/styles/1869549) | [At Queen Consolidated](https://urstyle.com/styles/1870849)

Felicity knew without a doubt, one hundred percent, that she should not be there. It was hard to even come up with a reason why she _was_ there. Sure, she had a vague interest in the vigilante of Starling City but she’d spent the past few days convincing herself that there was no possible way Oliver Queen and the infamous archer were one in the same. She was tucked away in the back of the courtroom that was standing room only at this point, shifting from foot to foot silently with her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her lip caught between her teeth.

She could only pray that Walter Steele, who sat just behind the defendant’s table next to his stepdaughter, wouldn’t spot her. He was the only person in the room who would recognize her. So she hoped that he wouldn’t happen to glance over his left shoulder because then she would most certainly be screwed. Felicity’s eyes skated over the others in the courtroom, finding Moira Queen’s stiff form, Thea Queen’s hunched shoulders, and Tommy Merlyn’s oddly relaxed pose on the bench behind them both.

Then the bailiff called everyone to attention just as the doors to the left opened, allowing the man of the hour to walk in escorted by a guard. There was no good explanation for how her heart began to race as she watched Oliver Queen take his place, perfect and angular and handsome with nary a hair out of place, his suit pressed and his tie knotted perfectly at the hollow of his throat. Felicity’s eyes remained fixed on him, though she knew she wasn’t the only one. Everyone was staring at him, wondering if he could really be the man who took the law into his own hands.

“Where’s your attorney, Mr. Queen?” the judge asked after giving him a long, calculating look.

“I’m representing myself, Judge,” he replied, his voice smooth and unwavering.

It was as if he was sharing a casual conversation over dinner instead of facing murder charges among others. Felicity felt the tension in the room grow and saw Moira Queen shift in her seat as her daughter shot an alarmed look her way. Everyone knew that it was a terrible idea for someone to defend themselves against charges like this, even if he was innocent. So why was he doing it? Felicity’s eyes didn’t waver, watching him as everything else faded into the background. It was incredibly hard to keep her mind from racing with all of the possibilities.

Felicity tried to fit the puzzle pieces together and just couldn’t do it. There was something about the idea of Oliver Queen that didn’t align with the Vigilante. Whether someone saw him as a trust fund brat or a traumatized castaway, he just didn’t fit. Felicity had to be missing something if he was truly the Hood. Because she certainly couldn’t trust the idea that Oliver Queen, in any capacity, would show her even the slightest second of interest when his history proved that he had little trouble surrounding himself with gorgeous, leggy, blue-blooded women.

“Your Honor, Mr. Queen’s family owns a pair of private jets,” the district attorney said, pulling Felicity from her thoughts. “And while on the subject of their wealth, I will point out that there is virtually no bail amount that will guarantee his presence at trial.”

“So then I guess it’s a good thing that the people’s case is so circumstantial,” a new voice joined the fray.

Speaking of gorgeous and leggy. Felicity’s eyes tracked the new arrival, watching as Laurel Lance walked into the courtroom with confidence ringing in every step, her head held high. Every eye landed on her, including that of her apparent client as he turned around with the slightest smile on his face. But his eyes didn’t fix on her for long. As he rose just slightly to slide over, allowing her the first seat at the table, his eyes flitted past her and scanned the crowd, fixing on Felicity for just the slightest moment before he was turning to face forward again.

The tightness in her chest eased and her heart calmed as she dropped her hands and let the tension bleed from her muscles. His face registered no recognition when he spotted her. There was nothing at all, even in his eyes, that betrayed any sort of familiarity. With how close they’d been, not that Felicity was one to brag, she was almost certain the man beneath the hood wouldn’t be able to face her in the daylight without betraying even the slightest crease of his brow or twitch of his lips when he saw her. Either Oliver Queen was an incredible actor or he wasn’t the man that she was looking for.

It was all too easy to convince herself that the latter was the truth.

“Dinah Laurel Lance, Your Honor,” Oliver’s lawyer announced, taking her place at the table. “I’d like to file my appearance on behalf of the defendant.”

Felicity turned her head, moving as quietly and innocuously as she could, inching her way along the back wall until she found her way to the door, reaching out to take hold of the handle. As Laurel Lance went on about how the Queen family’s wealth shouldn’t deprive Oliver of his basic rights, she pushed the door open and stepped out, feeling certain that the accused man was _not_ the Hood all while remaining ignorant of the striking blue eyes that tracked her every movement until the door shut behind her.

All she could hope was that the real vigilante didn’t let an innocent man go to prison, no matter how rich the Queen family was.

*****

Felicity wouldn’t have minded working overtime as often as she did if Queen Consolidated wasn’t as creepy as it was at night. The inactivity lent a silence to the building that unsettled her, deep in her bones. Not that she felt like she was in danger, but she just felt off-kilter. A feeling that wasn’t helped when one night, just a few days after the courthouse visit and with news stories still cycling about the dropped charges against Oliver Queen, the power went out completely as she sat at her computer.

Her breath caught in her throat and her stomach twisted anxiously as she sat in the dark, her eyes blinking quickly as her vision struggled to adjust without light. Felicity’s hand fumbled for a moment before landing on her phone, switching on the flashlight option as she turned her swivel chair around, pushing to her feet slowly. As much as she wanted to grab her purse and haul ass out of the darkness, Felicity felt like she had to check and see if it was a blackout or an issue within the building.

Hundreds of executives and lower level employees certainly wouldn’t be happy if they came back to work in the morning only to be lacking in electricity because she was too scared to call it in. Not that Felicity imagined that she was the only one in the building, just that she felt an obligation to make sure someone knew if it was a fault within the building. So she crept her way to a window, peering out and finding that all of the surrounding buildings had power judging by the lights scattered around the windows.

Not only that, but she could see in the reflection of the shiny building across from Queen Consolidated that the very floor she stood on was the only one with blacked out windows.

Panic rose in her chest as she took a step away from the window, turning around with the renewed determination to get the hell out of there before she suddenly became the unfortunate victim of a very stereotypical situation. But as she lifted her phone to guide her way back to her desk, the light settled on a dark form mere feet away and Felicity’s shriek filled the otherwise empty IT department, echoing around them as her phone hit the linoleum with a muffled thump and her back met the cool window as she staggered away.

“It’s me,” a modulated voice reached her ears.

The tension fled her body at the sound, her breath leaving her chest in a sharp exhale as Felicity pressed her hand over her racing heart.

“What the hell?” she breathed out, the dull light from the window outlining his form just enough for her to see him standing in the same spot. “I’m beginning to think that you’re actually trying to kill me.”

He didn’t respond to that, holding himself perfectly still with his bow slung over his shoulder and his head lowered as if to hide the details of his face even more than usual.

“Isn’t it a little suspicious to have one floor of the building go dark? And didn’t we talk about knocking out the lights?” Felicity said, letting her hand drop.

“I pulled a few wires. By the time the guards figure out who to call, I’ll be long gone,” he said, keeping his voice low. “And I agreed to leave the lights at your apartment alone. This is different.”

“Smartass,” Felicity huffed, shaking her head. “Guess I can't be too mad at you, though.”

The vigilante’s head tilted to one side, wordlessly communicating his confusion.

“You could have let Oliver Queen take the blame. I don’t know for sure but it seems like it would have made life easier for you.”

As soon as the words fell from her lips, the atmosphere changed for several long, loaded moments. The air was tense with something that Felicity couldn’t quite name and even though she was certain it was in her imagination, it almost felt like the emotion radiating off of the vigilante in front of her was disappointment.

“You’d be surprised,” he finally said, ending the strange moment.

“Still,” Felicity said, shrugging it off as she took a step forward. “It matters.”

Silence filled the space between them for several long moments before he bent down, picking up her phone from the ground and holding it out to her. Felicity took it, her fingers brushing his gloved hand. Resisting the urge to reach out and feel more of his solid mass against her palm, Felicity switched off her phone’s flashlight before looking up at him.

“You’ve been laying low since the trial,” she acknowledged.

“I thought it was smart,” he said.

If it was anyone else, Felicity might have expected to see a shrug along with the words. But such a casual gesture would be out of place with the city’s resident vigilante.

“I’m guessing something’s ended your hiatus,” Felicity said, stepping away from him before she could read too much in the way his body seemed angled towards hers more than usual.

“The bank robberies,” he said, his voice growing more serious at the change in subject.

She didn’t have a hard time recalling the details of that particular case. News of Oliver Queen’s exoneration was quickly overshadowed by the coverage of the bank robbers.

“The Royal Flush Gang?” Felicity recalled.

She didn’t miss the slight scoff that slipped from his lips, knowing how he felt about the way media sensationalized him alone, much less anyone else.

“I don’t know,” she said, tilting her head to the side teasingly. “I think it might be better than the Hood.”

He lifted his head slightly, her words catching his attention and finally illuminating the sharp line of his jaw in the dim light coming through the window as well as the slightest upturn of his lips.

“I think we’ve already established how I feel about that,” he said.

Felicity didn’t bother to hide her amusement, making her way back over to her desk.

“So I’m guessing you didn’t just come here to scare the hell out of me,” she said, knowing that he was following her even if she couldn’t see it happening.

“I need information,” he told her.

Felicity wasn’t at all surprised by that. She turned around, sitting down in her chair with her eyes on him as he drew up short several feet away.

“I should start collecting ‘I owe you’s,’” she said thoughtfully.

He didn’t even react to her words, carrying on as if he didn’t hear her.

“The gang is made up of a family – the Restons – and they’ve gone underground for the past few years. I want to start with the father, Derek Reston.”

Felicity didn’t hesitate to start typing, sending searches across the web to find any trace of a man named Derek Reston. The man in leather was right. There was no activity on his bank accounts or any trace of him at all in a long time. She did find the location of his usual favorite haunt, a bar in the Glades, and relayed that information to the vigilante in case it helped him find him.

“This isn’t your usual target,” Felicity commented as she looked into deeper into Derek Reston’s background.

“I’m branching out,” the vigilante said simply.

She opened her mouth to respond sneakily, possibly with the end result of a babble, but immediately snapped it shut when she saw the name of Reston’s former employer.

“That’s... ironic,” Felicity muttered quietly.

“What?”

Clearly not quietly enough. Felicity slowly turned her chair until she was looking up at him.

“Reston has gone radio silent since a few months before he started robbing banks with his family,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Before that, he worked for the Queen Consilidated factory in the Glades. He was cheated out of his pension when Robert Queen decided to outsource production. It’s ironic… considering the building we’re standing in.”

There it was again, the thick, uneasy silence that made Felicity think that she was missing something very big. Even with all of her considerable smarts, maybe she was.

“He was failed,” the vigilante said in a hushed voice, the uncertain waver in it coming through even over the voice modulation.

Felicity looked up at him, sensing that he was conflicted.

“Life doesn’t deal most people a fair hand,” she said, the usual humor gone from her voice as she spoke seriously. “But you don’t see everyone picking up a gun to rob banks and shoot cops when they should be having family dinner.”

The vigilante didn’t say anything, looking as though he was about to take a step away. But then his mind seemed to change along with his demeanor. Felicity couldn’t quite explain it but it was as if his hard edges grew just the slightest bit softer as his hand rose. Felicity’s breath caught in her throat when his gloved thumb brushed the lightest, almost _intimate_ touch over her jaw.

“If you ever need anything from me, Felicity, all that you have to do is ask,” he said, his voice quiet. “No need to collect ‘I owe you’s.’”

The way he said her name almost stole her breath from her chest but she managed to breathe normally after a second, her lips twitching into a smile as his hand fell away, leaving the ghost of his touch still lingering on her skin.

“I was kidding,” Felicity said, her smile growing wider. “Though I might be adding personal internet researcher for Mr. Vigilante to my resume.”

A moment passed before she heard an amused huff and almost thought she saw the flicker of a smile beneath the hood. Then he was stepping away, walking into the shadows all while Felicity tried her best to pretend she wasn’t admiring his ass in those leather pants as he went. Once he was gone and she was left alone, wondering if it was smart to go ahead and leave, Felicity wondered if she imagined the smallest glimpse at a mole by his lip when she peered up at him from the chair.

A mole that she’d most definitely seen before in the high definition photographs of Oliver Queen splashed all over the tabloids.

Felicity shook the thought off as quickly as it flitted through her mind, moving to gather her things. She knew that the trial just planted the seed in her head but she refused to entertain the thought that prodigal son was really the vigilante. Because if he was, a _big_ if, that meant that she was involved in an incredibly strange, quasi-flirty _thing_ with Oliver Queen. And that stuff just didn’t happen to Felicity.

Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love to hear what you think!
> 
> Felicity is not dumb or ignorant in this chapter. That’s the last thing I want anyone to think of the way I’m writing her. She’s just in deep, incredible denial about it because on a level, she does know the truth. She just isn’t ready to accept it yet.


	6. Chapter 6

There was a mistake.

I meant to have chapter six as a draft since it's not actually finished but I accidentally posted it. I don't think many people read it before I fixed the problem but I'm so sorry if you did. It was not supposed to be posted so I deleted it as quickly as I could. I know it may mess up the notifications for new chapters or whatever and I'm sorry for that.

The actual chapter six should be up tomorrow sometime. I'm really sorry again. I love all of you and your comments. Thank you so much for supporting this fic.


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